Two years ago, Circle didn’t even have proper email marketing.

Today, it claims to help creators, coaches, and digital entrepreneurs, like you and me, build polished, all-in-one community experiences.

But, is Circle actually worth it in 2026? Or is it another glossy online community platform with hidden costs, big-name influencers, and a few “almost there” moments?

Well, I’ve used Circle myself and seen it evolve, especially these last 3 years (including Circle Eclipse).

So, in this hands-on Circle.so review, I’ll share with you what I’ve found it does well. We’ll also see where it falls short for community builders and creating online courses.

Then I’ll walk you through how Circle pricing REALLY works (and a few gotchas you’ll want to be aware of).

Quick note: This is a detailed Circle.so review based on my experience using the community platform. You don’t have to read it from top to bottom. Feel free to jump to the sections that matter most to you. That said, if you’re seriously considering Circle, it’s worth reading more than one section because, as you’ll see, its features connect in ways that shape the overall experience.

What is Circle, really?

Circle started in 2019. The idea was that online communities could be better than clunky Facebook Groups, Slack channels, and course platform forums.

What started as a lean, modern community platform has grown into a fuller community-first business platform for creators, coaches, memberships, and brands.

Quick decision

What do I like about Circle.so? 👍

• Intuitive UI/UX: If you’ve used tools like Slack or Discord, Circle’s interface will feel familiar, but more organized for community and learning experiences.
• Community and courses in one place: You can host both your courses right inside your community. No need to pay for separate platforms.
• Community moderation tools: Expect tools like keyword blocklists and content flagging for spam, self-promotion, or low-quality posts.
• Solid mobile apps: Circle’s iOS and Android apps connect your members to discussions, courses, events, and memberships on the go.
• Live streaming: Thanks to live rooms, you can broadcast to specific groups, such as member-only events.
• Automation workflows: Here, you can automate repetitive online community management tasks, trigger actions based on member behavior, and manage your members at scale. It feels a bit like having Zapier built into Circle.
• Circle email marketing tools: You’ll find this handy when you want to email your members without adding yet another tool to your stack.

What I don’t like about Circle.so? 👎

• Transaction fees can increase your real cost: Circle’s transaction fees are easy to underestimate if you focus only on the monthly subscription price.
• Proper automations are locked behind the Business plan, which starts at $199 per month.
• Email marketing costs extra: Circle’s Email Hub is a paid add-on.
• Limited LMS features: Don’t come in expecting advanced assessments, course completion certificates, or deeper academic-style learning features as in LearnWorlds.
• Native email marketing integrations are limited: This is one of the more frustrating parts for me. It creates friction if you already have a favorite email marketing tool and do not want to pay for another add-on or manage another Zapier workflow.

So, is Circle worth it for community building? Well, these trade-offs simply mean you’ll want to test Circle for yourself before committing. And it’s risk-free for 14 days, as shown below.

Upfront bottom line

Circle is absolutely worth it if you want a polished, community-first platform that combines community, courses, events, paywalls, and solid UX in one place – it’s one of the best experiences I’ve tested.

But go in with eyes open:

Circle adds transaction fees on sales (2% on the Professional plan), its proper automation/workflows are mainly a Business-plan feature ($199/mo), and email marketing costs extra via Email Hub – often pushing your total spend closer to say Kajabi (which bundles stronger marketing out of the box).

Bottom line: Circle is excellent, but only a clear “yes” if you’ll actually use the community + course stack enough to justify those add-ons.

Circle Communities are polished and built for engagement

Community building is Circle’s strongest area, and right from the login, I like how beginner-friendly the setup feels.

There’s even a process guide to help you create your Circle community in minutes, even if it’s your very first time on here.

I also like that Circle gives you different formats to work with, including posts, events, courses, chat, and member directories.

Circle Spaces are like Slack channels or WhatsApp groups, but built specifically for structured online communities.

I find Spaces great for organizing a community around topics. So, instead of everything living in one endless feed, you can give every type of conversation its own room (space), like this:

That also means when members join your community, they should see the right spaces to be without needing a tutorial every five minutes.

Of course, you’ll need to create content for those Spaces. And for that, there’s a fully featured editor that supports “/” slash commands.

You can even record voice and video content directly inside the editor.

Overall, the editor feels a lot like using Notion. Flexible yet easy to work with. And compared to Mighty Networks or Skool, polished.

🤫 Pro tip: Use Circle’s spaces feature with the card-view layout to organize your training content. That way, you may not need to upgrade to a higher plan just to access course features.

And once you add your content, you are free to set spaces as public, private, or secret. That way, you can control who can access what in your Spaces.

You can also paywall specific spaces. And that’s handy if you want to create free and paid access tiers inside the same community.

For example, you can give your “Pro” members access to premium spaces while keeping other areas open to free members.

Onboarding members on Circle is well thought-out

Once people join your community, I’ve found these onboarding settings really handy for helping your members settle in faster.

Then you can customize the onboarding experience, send a welcome email, and guide new members toward the right starting point.

For example, you are free to set default login pages for new and returning members.

New members land on a “Start Here” page with FAQs, welcome videos, and intro prompts. Returning members go straight to the home page, see recent activity, and pick up where they left off.

This is all handy because the first few minutes inside a community can shape whether someone participates or loses morale and disappears.

I also like that Circle’s member profiles and directory make the community feel more human.

For example, Members can see who else is inside, learn about each other, and connect beyond the main discussion spaces.

Add comments, reactions, mentions, notifications, direct messaging, and moderation controls, and Circle feels like a complete social community experience…without becoming chaotic.

Quick note: For some reason, Circle lets community admins prevent members from leaving on their own. So, members may have to ask your admin to remove them manually. And if the admin does not respond, they may feel stuck in there. Not a great experience, and definitely something to be careful with.

Circle’s gamification system has improved, but…

If you’ve seen my Skool vs Circle review, you know Skool has made gamification one of its biggest selling points.

With Skool, you can track participation streaks and reward members when they reach certain levels or points.

I particularly like that Skool ties those rewards to real-world benefits, such as discounts, exclusive courses, or access to private events.

I find Circle not to be quite as playful as Skool in that sense.

On Circle, you reward active contributors with exclusive access to specific spaces and personalized recognition messages.

Your members get that by earning points, badges, and leaderboard positions.

Simple actions like commenting and liking posts inside the community earn them points and unlock badges, like this:

🏆 Bottom line: The Circle community experience feels organized, and you get pretty much all you need to build a complete online community platform.

Circle’s course creation makes sense now

So, your Circle community is set up and buzzing now.

The next natural step for many creators is often to turn that attention into a structured learning experience with online courses.

In Circle, you start by choosing how you want to structure and release your course content.

• Self-paced courses let your students get immediate access to all course content as soon as they enroll.
• Structured course spaces release materials gradually based on each student’s enrollment date.
• Scheduled courses are released on specific dates for all students, based on a fixed course schedule.

From there, you are free to organize your course curriculum into sections and lessons.

Better yet, if you want your learners to be more intentional, you can drip-schedule lessons in Circle.

I often use dripping to pace the learning experience instead of handing learners everything at once to binge-watch.

And to build that content, I found Circle’s drag-and-drop course builder pretty smooth. But you are also free to use building blocks, similar to Notion, to structure your lessons.

Either way, you can add text, audio, video trainings up to 4K resolution, embed codes, and downloadable resources like ZIP files and PDFs.

What’s special here is that your students are free to comment directly alongside the course material:

That is handy for seeing what your learners find interesting, confusing, or worth discussing further.

What’s also new is training AI on your course material to help answer your students’ questions around the clock. It basically works like ChatGPT, and I can’t quite complain.

Still on that helpful note, Circle’s course video player automatically generates transcripts.

This means members can search those transcripts and jump straight to the exact part of the lesson they need. No need to rewatch entire video trainings to find specific explanations.

Another improvement I like is that you can now track each student’s course completion progress.

This lets you see a ranked leaderboard of how each student is progressing. That includes when they last logged in.

From there, you can message top performers or nudge inactive learners with DMs. Better still, you can train an AI agent to send those DMs on your behalf, like this:

You can go further and use the checkout, paywall, and course-selling tools to gate premium content, accept one-time or recurring payments (via Stripe), and support referrals, promotions, and upsells in Circle.

However, while Circle now supports lesson order enforcement, I still couldn’t require learners to first complete a quiz or pass an assessment before proceeding to the next lesson. Kajabi lets me do that.

🏆 Bottom line: Circle works well for lightweight courses and community-led learning. But deeper LMS controls, such as assessments, are missing.

Coaching and events are spot-on. Livestreaming could improve

If you want to make the learning experience more personal, Circle offers 1:1 live video rooms for coaching and live event hosting tools.

Expect built-in livestreaming for smaller calls. Think of up to 30 participants and up to 1,000 members for larger events.

You are also free to do that natively on Circle, or through Zoom or Google Meet.

Better still, I like that I can help my members find upcoming sessions, join live events, and catch relevant updates without needing to dig through the main feed.

Inside that event space, you can create and schedule multiple events. And yes, you can also create and send out custom invitation links.

Plus, for each event, you are free to set the date, time, duration, and recurrence.

That way, you do not have to rebuild the same session again and again.

Better yet, Circle now lets you host public webinars, so people without a Circle account can still join.

What I like is that the guest attendees are prompted to enter their names and email addresses.

Once they do, you can find them under Manage Audience, view the full list, and filter for Profile incomplete to spot new leads and add them to your nurturing pipeline.

It kind of reminds me of Skool’s auto-discover feature, but for webinar-based lead capture.

Something else, and I’m not sure whether this was just my experience. If you’re running a content-heavy community with lots of videos and live events, the streaming can lag sometimes.

You do not want that during an important coaching call, workshop, or live cohort session.

🏆 Bottom line: Circle is well equipped for coaching, events, and livestreaming, yes. However, I would still keep Zoom or Google Meet nearby, just in case. Plus, you still can’t livestream your webinars or live events directly to YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

Circle has upped their AI and automation game

To avoid turning this section into an entire book, allow me to touch on the key Circle AI tools you’ll really want to know.

I’ll only touch on the key ones here. To see whether the AI tools are actually useful for your specific needs, I recommend you test them hands-on with the 14-day free trial of Circle. Risk-free, of course.

Community AI helps you and your members interact, nurture discussions, and automate follow-ups.

AI Co-pilot is good for coming up with discussion ideas, creating lesson summaries, and repurposing posts. Think of what ChatGPT or Claude are doing today.

I found Ask Circle Bot best at showing you what to do and where to do it on the Circle platform (Circle’s knowledge base).

Activity Scores show you who is active, who may be drifting away, and how your community is responding to prompts, events, and outreach. Pretty handy!

Elsewhere, Circle’s workflows help you automate things in other ways, like this:

• Automation workflows trigger actions automatically based on member behavior or specific conditions.
• Bulk action workflows enable you to select a group of members and apply an action immediately.
• With scheduled workflows, you can run selected actions on a recurring basis.

And there are more:

It all feels like having a lighter version of Zapier inside Circle… without the extra integration hassle, of course.

And if you want, these workflow templates can help you build automations faster:

For example, you can:

• Message members after they RSVP to an event
• Send event start reminders, and
• Auto-add members to spaces, courses, or private groups based on tags, like this:

Speaking of tags, I like that Circle lets you filter your audience and apply bulk actions to specific member groups.

For example, I can tag everyone who completes my “10X Content Systems for Beginners” course, message inactive members in a specific space, or move people with similar interests into the same space.

I can also filter members by tags, profile fields, enrolled spaces, location, RSVP status, last login date, and more.

🏆 Bottom line: All that makes Circle feel like a serious CRM or member management system…provided you have a Business plan and higher.

Building websites and landing pages on Circle is really easy

With the recent Circle 3.0 update, Circle now lets you build websites and landing pages right inside the platform.

And you don’t have to start from a blank screen either. They include page templates to help you get moving faster.

Just over a year ago, I used Circle. These used to look more colorful out of the box, like this:

Now the templates look more… plain:

However, you are free to customize each section to your unique taste or purpose.

You’ll also have multiple choices for branding your favorite website page template, like this:

Now, I prefer using WordPress + Elementor for most use cases I have, but even if you’re not familiar with WP, Circle’s page builder concept will feel easy to use. No coding experience is required here.

One thing I do like, though, is the Code/custom HTML widget.

That gives you some flexibility to add custom code or embed third-party tools.

For example, you can add opt-in forms from tools like OptinMonster or ConvertBox without needing to rebuild everything elsewhere.

🏆 Bottom line: Circle’s page builder is enough for creating a simple website with a custom domain or Circle.so sub-domain. But if you want advanced layouts, animations, parallax effects, deeper styling control, or the kind of design freedom you get with WP + Elementor, Circle is a work in progress.

Circle’s email marketing is much better now

Circle recently added email marketing features as part of its push to become a more complete platform for community-first brands.

With Circle’s email marketing hub, you can handle the basics without leaving the platform (or, my favorite, not needing to switch to a complex email tool).

You can send:

• Email broadcasts: These are one-time announcements to your full audience or specific member segments.
• Segmented emails: These target people based on actions they’ve taken, spaces they’ve joined, or tags you’ve added.
• Email sequences: Here, you set up automated emails that go out over time, such as welcome emails, course follow-ups, or event reminders.
• Get email analytics: This helps you track open rates, click rates, and engagement to see what is actually working.

I also like that the email editor is simple and easy to use.

Great for sending clean community updates, event reminders, and member emails.

In fact, expect access to over 55 email workflows to play with.

And you can create multiple “email funnel” steps to suit your needs, like this:

Still…

If you are coming from ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, or another dedicated email marketing platform, Circle’s email features may still feel basic.

But then again, with Circle, you already have a warmed-up audience (your community and course memberships). So, you are not trying to cold email and convince random people to subscribe to your email list.

However, Circle’s Email Hub costs extra once you have more than 100 people on your email list. For example, it costs $19 per month for 1,000 subscribers and $99/month for 10,000.

That’s interesting because even if you choose Circle’s $89/month Professional plan, adding Email Hub pushes your monthly cost right into Kajabi’s pricing range ($179/month).

And once that happens, the value conversation changes from “Does Circle offer email marketing?” to “Is Circle’s email marketing better than Kajabi’s built-in email tools?”

I’ve shared my full Kajabi vs Circle review here, so check that out if you are comparing both platforms before making the call.

However, compared to Skool and Mighty Networks, Circle’s Email Hub is well ahead.

🏆 Bottom line: Circle’s email tools will suffice if you want to send clean community updates, event reminders, and member emails. If you’re already using another email platform, you might want to stick with it and connect it to Circle through Zapier rather than adding another cost to your tech stack.

The Circle checkout experience is built for conversion optimization

Circle’s Paywall feature handles the checkout essentials. That includes making coupons, managing subscriptions, and tracking transactions.

It is also where you can set up upgrade paths, discounts, free trials, and make sure each member gets the right access level.

Circle pays you through Stripe only.

But your members can still pay with credit or debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Pix, iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA Direct Debit, and Buy Now, Pay Later options.

No PayPal, though.

But if you are big on conversion optimization like me, you’ll also love that for each paywall, you can customize the checkout experience with a cover image, membership benefits, badges, and testimonials. All that on one clean page, like this:

And if you want to go further, add a countdown timer, configure upsells, and offer coupon codes. Better still, you can set up post-purchase actions, such as thank-you messages or redirects.

One thing still missing, despite Circle’s recent checkout improvements, is native order bumps.

But, you can still connect ThriveCart with Circle via Zapier or webhooks. And as I noticed, that integration is clearly in demand. It’s the most popular Zap on Zapier.

🏆 Bottom line: Circle’s one-step checkout experience feels pretty sufficient for most use cases.

Circle’s mobile apps are actually useful

Circle offers mobile apps for both iOS and Android. So, your members don’t have to open a desktop browser every time to access the community, courses, events, and chats.

Circle’s mobile apps also support in-app purchases and branded notifications. So, this can help your community stay closer to where your members already spend a lot of their time…phones.

You and I know this. Push notifications can be more effective than emails when you want to bring members back for a live session, event reminder, or other key updates.

Another thing I really like here is that you can go live directly inside the app.

When you start a live session, your members receive a push notification, similar to how Facebook notifies you when a creator you follow goes live.

That gives you a better shot at real-time engagement instead of posting an event and hoping people remember it exists.

Still, your members can control their own notification preferences.

They can choose email or in-app notifications, and even adjust those settings for each space.

Event notifications are now supported as well. So, your members can get updates when a new event is published, when they RSVP, and before the session starts.

I like that because it’s one of the best ways to improve attendance. It’s a busy life out there, after all.

🏆 Bottom line: Circle’s iOS and Android apps make the community experience easier to access and harder to miss. And for a little extra, you can turn the apps into a white-label solution.

Circle.so integrations need to do more email

Expect native integrations with 15+ tools and services.

Most of these are for things like custom SSO and connections with tools such as Teachable, Memberstack, MemberSpace, Memberful, WordPress, X/Twitter, SendGrid, and more.

For anything beyond that, you’ll usually need to use Zapier or Circle’s API.

What’s not so cool is that Circle (like Skool and Mighty Networks) still lacks direct integrations with advanced email marketing tools.

👎 So, if you use the likes of ConvertKit and Mailchimp, you’ll likely need Zapier, Make, the API, or Circle’s own paid Email Hub add-on for that.

I find that to be a bummer, and you might too, especially if rebuilding your email workflow around another paid add-on or another Zapier setup is not your first choice (or the best use of your time).

🏆 Bottom line: Circle offers a decent set of native integrations. But lacking direct integrations with popular email marketing platforms is a real miss.

Circle.so pricing can get complicated

Circle offers a Professional, Business, and Custom plan.

The Professional plan starts at $89/month (billed annually). This should be enough for many solo creators, coaches, and smaller communities. You’re getting the core community features, courses, rich member profiles, livestreams, and paywalls.

But if you want the more serious growth tools, you’ll need the Business plan at $199/month when billed annually.

That is where you get workflows, custom profile fields, branded notifications, and more room to manage your community at scale.

For priority support, full API access, AI agents, SSO, and advanced analytics, you’ll need to talk to Circle’s sales team for custom pricing (Circle Plus).

That much is straightforward.

Now, here are the Circle pricing details I’d watch closely. 🤫

• First, Circle’s advertised monthly prices are based on annual billing. So, before you mentally file it under $89/month, remember the lower rate comes with a yearly commitment ($89 X 12).
• Second, Circle charges transaction fees on paywall sales: 2% on Professional, 1% on Business, and 0.5% on Circle Plus. For example, if you sell $5,000/month through Circle on the Professional plan, Circle’s 2% transaction fee would be $100/month before Stripe processing fees and the plan’s $89/month.
• Third, some of Circle’s best features, especially workflows, AI tools, and advanced automation, sit behind the Business plan. That means the practical Circle plan for serious community builders may be closer to $199/month than $89/month. And that’s before add-ons like Email Hub.
• Fourth, Circle offers a 30-day money-back guarantee when you upgrade to a paid plan. I got that via email. If you get this offer as well, you’ll have another 30 days after your trial expires to try out Circle. That gives you more time to try it out risk-free.
• Fifth, this…

This is not exactly a deal breaker, but it’s something you’ll want to keep in mind.

So, is Circle expensive?

Not automatically. But it can get pricey quickly if you need automation, email marketing, branded apps, advanced analytics, and more.

Also, if you’re planning to sign up around the holiday season, it’s worth checking whether Circle is running any seasonal offers. I’ve covered the latest details in my Circle.so Black Friday deal guide, so you can compare the discount and pricing before committing.

🏆 Bottom line: Circle’s pricing is fair if community is the center of your business and you intend to actually use the platform deeply. I recommend starting with the 14-day free trial so you can test the exact features you need before committing to annual billing.

If Circle feels too expensive, or not quite right for your needs, here are the best Circle.so alternatives I’ve tested myself.

Best Circle.so alternatives: 6 Circle competitors to compare right now

Online community platforms similar to Circle are everywhere these days. But based on my experience, these are the top alternatives to Circle I’d recommend you test first.

Circle vs Kajabi

Circle is a good choice if the community experience is your main product. It gives you cleaner spaces, better community UX, native events, livestreaming, paywalls, and workflows built around community engagement.

But if your business depends more on courses, and needs advanced email marketing as well as sales funnels, Kajabi may be the stronger choice here.

See my full Circle vs Kajabi comparison here.

Circle vs Mighty Networks

Compared to Mighty Networks, Circle feels easier to use, easier to organize, and less heavy day to day. On the flip side, Mighty Networks is a keeper if you want a broader branded community ecosystem and have the team or patience to manage something more complex.

See my first-hand Circle vs Mighty Networks comparison here.

Circle vs Skool

Skool offers simplicity, fast setup, top-notch gamification, and a community experience that is easy to launch without fiddling with too many settings. But if you want more, like email marketing, stronger branding, and a more equipped platform for scaling your community-first brand, Circle wins.

See my hands-on Circle vs Skool comparison here.

Circle vs LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is where I’d go if I wanted a full-blown, modern, online learning management system (LMS), assessments, certificates, and interactive learning tools. However, choose Circle if community is the main experience, and courses are there to support engagement, coaching, or memberships.

Check out my full LearnWorlds review here

Circle vs Discord

You’ll want to test Discord first if you want a free or low-cost, chat-first community with fast conversations and a familiar experience for younger, gaming, tech, or crypto-style audiences. But if you want a more professional home for paid memberships, courses, events, and structured discussions, try Circle.

Circle vs Slack

Consider Slack if your community is more like a private workspace, mastermind, or professional group where real-time chat matters most. Or, try Circle if you want something built for creators, memberships, content, courses, events, and monetization instead of just team-style messaging.

Take the next step

So, is Circle.so worth it for creating an online community platform today?

In my experience, Circle does a really good job of creating polished, organized, and genuinely community-first experiences.

Its capabilities feel deliberate, clean, and modern, the feeling you get from using tools like Notion and Slack. Yet it delivers the tools creators like me actually need.

That said, Circle is not perfect. And because Circle bills annually, I would not recommend jumping in blindly.

I’d test first. So, start with this 14-day free Circle trial to explore the features you actually need, and see whether it feels like the right place to build your own circle of influence.

Circle.so FAQs

1. Is Circle.so worth it in 2026? Yes, Circle.so is worth it if you want a polished, community-first platform for memberships, courses, events, coaching, and paid communities.
2. Is Circle better than Skool? Circle is better than Skool if you want a more structured online community, branding, automation, AI workflows, and flexible community spaces. Skool offers a simpler, more playful community.
3. Is Circle better than Kajabi? Circle is better for community-first businesses. Kajabi is better for expertise businesses that need advanced, built-in email marketing and sales funnels under one roof.
4. Can you sell courses on Circle? Yes. You can create course spaces, organize lessons into sections, drip content, and sell access through one-time payments, subscriptions, or memberships.
5. Does Circle offer course completion certificates? No, Circle does not offer native course completion certificates. You’d need to connect to a third-party tool like Accredible through Zapier for that.
6. Does Circle charge transaction fees? Yes, Circle charges transaction fees on your sales. The Professional plan charges 2%, Business charges 1%, and Circle Plus charges 0.5%, before Stripe processing fees.
7. Does Circle offer email marketing? Yes, Circle has Email Hub for email broadcasts, sequences, segmentation, and email marketing analytics. Email Hub is useful for community updates, event reminders, onboarding, and course follow-ups. It costs extra, though.
8. Can you build a website with Circle? You can build simple websites and landing pages with Circle.so, and includes templates for that.
9. Does Circle have a mobile app? Yes, Circle has iOS and Android apps. The apps let your members access communities, courses, chats, events, livestreams, and notifications from their phones. And yes, Circle lets you create branded mobile apps through Circle Plus.
10. Is Circle good for beginners? Yes, Circle does not require much technical setup.
11. What are the best Circle.so alternatives? The best Circle.so alternatives are Kajabi, Skool, Mighty Networks, and LearnWorlds. Kajabi is stronger for marketing automation, Skool is simpler, and LearnWorlds is stronger for serious courses.
12. What is the biggest downside of Circle.so? Keep an eye on the cost of transaction fees, Email Hub, and AI workflows. Those are optional, though.